The Pebble That Started The Avalanche
by Vaneria Potter
Summary: Sonja's Death Scene, as experienced by various characters.
1. Viktor

_Disclaimer: I do not own Underworld, or any of the characters, though I firmly maintain that they are among the best interpretation of Vampires and Werewolves out there, along with Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, and Terry Pratchett._

_Summary: Sonja's death scene, as experienced by the various characters._

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**VIKTOR**

I stood in my daughter's rooms, assailed by a thousand memories, while Lucian's screams resounded through the stone walls of the fortress.

A ruler cannot show favouritism, even to their own flesh and blood. A Vampire Elder could not allow such a union, or its offspring, to survive, grandchild or not.

Was it truly only a few days ago that I told Sonja that her antics risked too much for a father to ignore? Absence at a Council Meeting could be excused, if they were infrequent. Recklessly using herself as bait for the Lycans could be viewed as bravery, if tempered with prudence. No-one would even bat an eye at a secret, informal liaison, if it was with one of our own kind.

But a pregnancy resulting from an affair with a Lycan slave, being absent from Council after Council, so that she could meet with him… that was something that no-one could excuse.

A hybrid species, descended from one of the Triumvirate – and therefore with a claim of inheritance to its power – could threaten everything, and a disloyal daughter, who betrayed her own coven, could not be forgiven, no matter how much I loved her.

Though it tore my heart to condemn the one I held most precious, I was forced to order the execution of my Sonja, my daughter.

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My proud, brave, clever child. Sonja was all that I could want or need in an heir, and was far more worthy of the honour than several first-born sons that I knew of. In spite of her gender, I hired the best teachers to train her as a warrior, and never failed to tell her how precious she was to me.

Perhaps that was my failing. I told her that she was special, that I had no desire for an heir when I had her, and indulged my precious, precocious daughter. I told her no, when I felt I needed to, but perhaps I did not stress the importance of limits, that there was only so much that even she could get away with before she was censured. Perhaps I should have made the boundries of what is and is not acceptable clearer, and no we both pay the price for folly.

Lucian's all-consuming cries of grief echo for miles, and penetrating the very walls, thanks to the chamber acoustics. I would pity him, if I did not blame him, but his pain is no less potent than my own as I bow my head silently, gripping the furniture to stop myself from sinking to the floor and never rising.

If it is the last thing I do on this earth, I will kill Lucian for leading Sonja down this road, turning a young woman's head with feigned romance, but ultimately leading her to her Doom.

It is unlikely that I will ever feel this love again, the love of a father for his children. I do not know why I even bother to make the resolution, when I know that I have no other issue, but I promise myself that if another child claims my heart as Sonja did, soothing the emptiness left by her absence, I will make sure that they know that Lycans are the enemy, and not to be trusted.

But that is for the future, and for the present, I surrender to my grief.

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_A/N: Yes, I am a villain apologist, as anyone who has read some of my previous stories should know, and I like finding motivations behind actions._

_I'm thinking of doing chapters for Sonja and Lucian, as well, if people are interested in reading._

_**adodcefa** mentioned in her review that Viktor truly loved Sonja and Selene as daughters, and that it broke his heart to order their deaths. I hope that I conveyed this well enough in my fic._

_This is my first Underworld fic, though Underworld is far and away my favourite Vampire and Werewolf universe, just above Buffy: the Vampire Slayer (Since I focus more on the Slayers, Watchers and original Gang than the assorted demons and other nasties) and Terry Pratchett (since Vampires etc. only feature in some of his works.)_

_Thanks, Nat._


	2. Sonja

_Disclaimer: I do not own Underworld, or any of the associated characters, no matter how much I like them._

_Summary: See previous chapters._

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**Sonja**

I knew that my father would have no choice but to sentence me to death.

I asked him to spare Lucian, to delay the sentence until our child was born, but I knew that my life was over the moment we were discovered.

With the Lycan numbers unknown, but growing every day, and our numbers only a few hundred strong, we could not afford to be divided. Previously, Lucian would not harm us due to his love for me, but other Lycans were held back by nothing but force and the fact that Vampires had more sophisticated and co-ordinated fighting methods.

If Father had tried to have me spared or pardoned, we would have splintered, and been left diminished, easy prey for the Lycans.

No matter how much my father loves me, no matter how much my death would break his heart, he will be given no other option but to order me killed. Some of the harsher council members will probably insist that he do it himself.

But it was not all his fault. I should have listened when Lucian asked me to run away together. I could have found a way to break our relationship to my father gently, presenting it as a good thing. No matter how desperate I was, I should not have blurted the news of the hybrid child I carried in front of the entire population of the castle.

I did not inherit my temper from my mother, and my father has never dealt with unwelcome surprises calmly.

Then again, I suppose no father could be expected to react happily to the news of a pregnancy out of wedlock, especially when the father is a Lycan slave.

Morbid humour, but it brings a smile to my lips.

I do not regret my time with Lucian, however short it was. I experienced the kind of love that most people only dream of; the kind of love that takes you to the end of the earth and back, that can endure anything, even death.

My only regret is that he will be forced to live without me, and I know how much that will pain him.

There is the sound of stone grinding against stone, and the skylight begins to open.

Terror flows through me, chasing away the serenity and acceptance I thought I had achieved, and my eyes fly upward. My end is coming.

Lucian knows it, too, and I see the fear and horror in his eyes. Even now, we had both been hoping for an eleventh-hour miracle, that my father would somehow free us and make it look like a lucky escape. But there will be no sudden reprive.

Lucian catches my eyes with his, begging me to look at him, to hold on. I do so, wanting my last sight to be of the Lycan, the man, I love. I focus everything I am into that last gaze, trying to reassure him as I memorize every dark lock of hair, every lean muscle, everything that makes him Lucian, to carry with me into whatever awaits after Death.

I start to burn, and the last thing I hear are his screams.

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_A/N: Keep in mind, this was several centuries ago, when girls were supposed to obey their fathers (or later, their husbands) and that was it. In those days, Viktor would have been seen as amazingly lenient for letting his daughter fight at all. Serving on the council would be accepted, as his only child, but it is telling that there are only a few female Elders, and aside from Selene, I don't think I saw any other female Death Dealers, except for the opening flashback scene in Underworld: Evolution, who I'm fairly sure was Amelia._

_People were probably already looking at Viktor oddly and whispering that Sonja was indulged and favoured. Viktor would have had to defend that from the start, and there was no way that anyone would accept Sonja being spared after she openly admitted to taking a Lycan as a lover. Viktor, none of the Coven, could afford a split in the ranks, not if they wanted to survive. Sonja knew the risks, and accepted them anyway._

_That is my take on things, anyway, and you are all free to disagree with me._

_Thanks, Nat._


	3. Lucian

_Disclaimer: I do not own Underworld, or any of the associated characters._

_Summary: See previous chapters._

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**LUCIAN**

The first time I saw Sonja, she was a little girl a few years younger than myself.

She was still human, as Viktor knew that no one would take a child seriously, even a child claimed as his own, and was determined for her to reach adulthood before turning her.

Perhaps that was why I did not immediately reject her as beyond me. Vampire and Werewolf both had once been human, and that made us equals, of a sort, if you discounted the social situation that, even then, I was of a mind to one day change.

Viktor did not mind us interacting as we grew, perhaps seeing me as a protector for the most precious thing in his world, when she was absent from his side.

As the only two children in the castle, perhaps it was only natural that we became close. A shared loneliness, myself for being a Lycan, Sonja because no one wished to trifle with Viktor's beloved daughter, brought us closer. We understood each other, were each other's sole confidant, and our close friendship gradually transformed into love.

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It hurt her, that we had to keep it secret.

There were many times that I almost gave us away by accident, when I could not help but watch her, meet her eyes for moments too long for it to be mere respect. When I broke my chains and instinctively leaped to protect her when she was in danger, though Viktor was willing to dismiss that as proof that I was loyal, that his plan of Lycans guarding Vampires was a sound one.

Sonja was a horrible liar, and it was obvious that she was hiding something when she tried to make excuses for her absence when we had been meeting in secret.

It was that incapability for deception that was our ruin. Viktor suspected that she knew something of my escape, and took her blood to see the truth. He saw that she knew I had made a spare key, but more than that, he saw that we were in love, were lovers, which was something that he could not bear.

All right, I admit that there were better ways that he could have found out, but still.

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Sonja was so concerned for my safety after I escaped that a child could have seen through her attempt at calm rationality. Viktor certainly did, and saw the truth in her blood. He was not pleased, though I think that perhaps he only wanted punishment, or abortion of the child – my child – that she carried, but not death, for his daughter.

Whatever I might think of Viktor personally, Sonja was the center of his world, and if he protested the risks she took as a Death Dealer, he would hardly push for her execution. I don't imagine that stopped him from cheerfully ordering my own, and he didn't sound at all reluctant to order me whipped to the bone with the most brutal whip they could find, but he would never have wished her death.

Yet in the end, he was the one to give the command for Sonja, the woman we both loved, to die.

He knew that she carried his grandchild. He knew that the only crime she had committed was that of loving me. Surely he knew some kind of escape route for Sonja and I, or even just Sonja, to disappear before the Council could vote.

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I will never forgive him for allowing it to come to pass.

I saw the terror on Sonja's face at her impending doom, and strained to reach her, but the chains held me back. I begged her to look at me, in the hopes that it would give her something else to focus on. She tore her eyes from the opening skylight, fixing her gaze on me. A single strand of hair fell over her face, and I longed to brush it away.

There was nothing I could do to save either of us.

I could only tell her that I loved her, and try to ignore how useless it sounded. Sonja managed to smile one last time. A smile that encompassed all the love she felt, all the dreams, and a prayer that I would manage to continue without her. She whispered that she loved me, saying goodbye, moments before the sun hit, and she could not restrain a scream of agony.

My own screams echoed only seconds later, forced to watch as she burned, to stare at the charred corpse that was all that was left of my love. My cries of grief that I was left to face a life where she was not there.

The sorrow swiftly turned to anger, hatred for the one whom I viewed as ultimately responsible for this fathomless loss.

Viktor.

No matter what it took, no matter what lengths I had to go to, I would kill him.

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_A/N: Well, this is the third and last part of this fic, so feel free to review and tell me what you think, as this was my first Underworld fic. I wrote a happier one in the meantime, entitled '__Two Races, One Destiny'.__ Hopefully it isn't too terrible._

_Thanks, Nat._


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